In conjunction with ACC 2022, Tara Neal, Executive Editor at The Fast Mode spoke to Ian Watterson, the Head of CSG’s Asia-Pacific business on CSG's participation at the recently concluded event.
Tara: How was ACC 2022? What are the highlights of the show this year?
Ian: I heard great things coming out of ACC Global this year. As one of the region’s most important telecom events, it’s so valuable for us to hear perspectives from the communications service providers (CSPs) and telecom leaders attending the show. Bringing so many industry players together in one room helps shed light on the biggest trends and priorities for leaders in the space. We continue to hear about the importance of digitalization and challenges with the complexity of the B2B2X ecosystem, as well as the diversity of applications for 5G in APAC markets.
Tara: What did you showcase at the show?
Ian: Though our presence at this year’s show was light, we are excited to continue to highlight CSG Encompass, a modular SaaS commerce solution built for CSPs to successfully roll out and monetize 5G offerings and adapt to a new world of digital services and partnerships. Based on TM Forum’s open standard APIs, CSG Encompass spans marketing, wireless, and digital services offerings, all the way through packaging, onboarding, provisioning, call centre, service fulfilment, account management, and customer support. It empowers CSPs to differentiate themselves through a future-ready solution that unlocks the limitless possibility of 5G to create offerings that excite customers and deliver seamless commerce. It also has the flexibility and agility to evolve as rapidly as the market changes.
Tara: What’s the role of unified customer engagement in driving operator revenues?
Ian: Great question. Customer experience continues to be a top driver for customer acquisition and retention, across sectors and especially in telecom. As CSPs begin to offer a similar portfolio to each other and it becomes easier for customers to switch plans, it’s essential for CSPs to analyse their customer journey and put strategies into place to create extraordinary customer experiences that encourage loyalty. As a result of a positive experience, customers are more likely to spread word of mouth, deepen their wallet share, pay a higher price, and become less likely to seek out a competitor. In fact, improving CX cuts millions to hundreds of millions of dollars in waste and boosts revenue growth and margins.
Tara: What about the Metaverse? How can operators tap into Metaverse opportunities?
Ian: 5G is the foundation of the metaverse and could stand to be its most lucrative and transformative application, with use cases in healthcare, education, financial services, entertainment, and beyond. CSPs will be the enablers of the metaverse as the tech industry looks to the telecom industry to support new innovations with ultra-powerful connectivity. CSPs have a unique opportunity to customise their 5G offerings for this space, to unlock greater ROI and 5G monetization.
Tara: The global vs APAC market: what differences do you see in terms of approaches to customer experience management?
Ian: The APAC market is a mosaic with varying levels of infrastructure sophistication and a great diversity of demands even within the same country, city, or neighborhood. That means that CSPs operating in the region need a deeper level of analytical capabilities to understand the customer journey for each market segment and the most valuable opportunities for business growth. For both enterprise and consumer audiences, CSPs should hyper-personalize their customer journeys to drive engagement and customer share. It’s a market that requires hyper-individualization, communicating value in a personalized and authentic way to align with and contextualize the needs of each customer.
